Brisbane Truck Show

[1leglance]

Wow that floor lift is way cool....and the seat lift is trick.
Thanks for showing us some nice stuff and for staying up on the disabled access side of things.

 

[whatcharterboat]

Wow that floor lift is way cool....and the seat lift is trick.

Yeah I especially liked the way the floor lift went up way above the floor height as well as down. This would be a perfect lift for a high ground clearance expedition type vehicle. They had tons of other cool stuff. I don't have any other pics but if you want any more details PM me. I have their card at work. The van was full of other lifts, floor restraints for chairs etc. Driving aids too I think.

Many thanks for sharing these photos. The swing axles on the Tatra look like an old VW bus! The kit for constructing cargo boxes looks very practical. I like the built-in thickness of the insulation.

John, your photos are very clear. What camera did you use to take them?

Hey no worries Chip. I borrowed our camera from work. It's an older 5.1 megapixel Olympus c-5060. Looks like a big ol' vintage rangefinder. We have a fisheye for it too which is what you need to capture decent interior shots of the campers. One day I'll find out what all the buttons mean. Lol.

Oh about the swing axles, you can really notice it in the first pic too.

 

[whatcharterboat]

Lights

So many new LED’s Apart from the big players such as Narva, Hella and LED Technologies, many of the larger auto electrical wholesalers were out in force.
Some of the Narva worlamps on display. I’ve used the LED units on the middle row at the left but the one in the center was new and very worthy of a try. These guys have very good well priced range of autolec products.

The Hella gear is always top class but you pay for it. They had some very, very bright interior lights. 48 x 3watt LEDs . And probably the neatest thing I’ve seen in plugs ever. If you look closely you can see all the display lights are plugged into the stand with a round cap about 40mm diameter. The cap had a magnet in it and 2 contact pins. The socket on the wall was simply a round flat disc with 2 x small brass flat discs. So it was almost flat. You can see some of them are uplugged. When you placed the plug against it the magnet turned on the power and held the plug in place. These are intended as a replacement for the common cigarette plug and socket.

Some more from LED Technologies. I’ve already used some of the bottom interior LEDs but the tail light assemblies above were awesome when illuminated. Looked like they were from a modern Italian supercar.

The LEDs below are interior lights. Really thin profile using flat rectangular LEDs instead of the normal dome shaped ones.

All these guys had fairly big exhibits though I only took a couple of pics of specific things so you can get an idea.

Of course you can put lights on a display stand and drool but have a look at how trick these clear LEDs look on this rig. It would have been more at home in a Street Rod Show.

 

[whatcharterboat]

Someone should go to jail for building this 75 Series LandCruiser. Had to be the most sacrilegious thing I saw all day.

This was more like it. Imagine hanging on to the handle (the guy is holding) at the wrong end of that angry looking monster chainsaw on the back.

 

[Mickldo]

Me

Mickldo

Mick Better to put this in a new thread.

Oh my God. The best one ever. Actually we didn't plan to go at all but after spending till 8 PM on Saturday night trying to finish an urgent job for Monday we thought "Why not take a break, see what's new and catch up with all the gossip". Actually Mick, I was looking for your number this morning to see if you wanted to make the trip down and come with us but figured it might have been a bit much. Next year mate. Tax deduction for ya anyway.

We thought we would have a casual stroll around and see everything in 5 or 6 hours. Honestly I could have spent a week there. There was still large outdoor areas and pavilions that we didn't get to at all. At the Brisbane caravan and camping show the exhibits are generally bigger but really meant mainly for the public. The Truck Show on the other hand was definitely more oriented towards industry. So while there were some strong appearances by the actual truck manufacturers, the support from the ancillary players was huge. Huge.

I've only just walked in the door but took about 50 good pics and will download them in the office tomorrow, compile them in some sort of order and post them in this thread tomorrow.

Not alot of pure offroad trucks. MAN was there with a few models including a MAN KAT out here for testing by the Defence Forces. Talk about TUFF. Offroad Trucks Australia had a new big Tatra. Isuzu of course was there in full glory but only had one 4x4 NPS Crewcab. They did have the new ELF Hybrid (2wd) which has an electric motor driving a tailshaft back through the PTO on the side of the transmission. Very clever.

Fuso also had a working hybrid FG pantec (2wd)as well as the aero Hybrid concept tipper that has been doing the international shows. Other than that the only other actual offroad truck I saw was a very cool 4x4 Hino work truck with a cherry picker similar to the FSS and FTS Mickldo builds. We didn't see Hino but I'm sure they were well represented, somewhere.

So while that doesn't sound like much in the way of actual vehicles for expedition use, it was all the other "stuff" that was so cool. Just wait for the pics.

Great pics John. I was hoping to get down to the truck show but other commitments took over. Unfortunately it will be the same this weekend for the boat show. D'oh.

 

[Mickldo]

Well this was another great stop at one of our hardware suppliers.

They had this complete aluminum frameless body building system on display . While the system’ss been around for a while, it was sure neat to see this sample and I thought it might give some of you guys who are always asking about camper materials an alternative. It’s another of those hot topics, heh?

This is what a finished pantec looks like using it.

Something eles that caught my eye there was this central locking kit for the old faithful “T”locks.

This alloy sandwich stuff is what we are going to use on that FVL 1400 Racecar transporter we are getting you to quote on the cab chop for. I've just got to find a supplier for the tailgate lifter now.

 

[whatcharterboat]

I've just got to find a supplier for the tailgate lifter now.

Hi Mick, Yep . Plenty of tailgate lifters there too. Maybe not exactly race car types. That might be a specialized thing if it's a 2 level transporter.

It is isn't it?

 

[whatcharterboat]

I did think this might have been a handy thing to have mounted on the back bar of your giant MAN expedition truck. Great for lifting spare wheels or trailbikes etc. I know there is a million of these mini lifters on the market but what caught my eye here was the mechanical slew and the remote pump. The shaft for the slew is at the base there and the black handle is a little obscured by the hydraulic lines.
\

 

[whatcharterboat]

If you aren’t familiar with it, this is the Huck riveting system for putting chassis and suspension components together with.

Oh yeah and I'll have to get one of these torque multipliers for the tool kit too.

 

[dzzz]

Well this was another great stop at one of our hardware suppliers.

They had this complete aluminum frameless body building system on display . While the system'ss been around for a while, it was sure neat to see this sample and I thought it might give some of you guys who are always asking about camper materials an alternative. It's another of those hot topics, heh?

Do you have the name of the vendor? The alloy honeycomb would need to be replaced by a foam filled matrix, but the basic design would work.

It is disappointing how much the panels cost, however. I'm surprised the Chinese haven't entered the sandwich panel market. Easy to ship and apparently pretty good margins.

 

[whatcharterboat]

Do you have the name of the vendor?

PM sent.

The alloy honeycomb would need to be replaced by a foam filled matrix, but the basic design would work.

Yep. We've done this before. Good way to build a "one off".Have a look at Iandraz's 404 Mog Camper Build Thread from last year for some pics of it.

It is disappointing how much the panels cost, however. I'm surprised the Chinese haven't entered the sandwich panel market. Easy to ship and apparently pretty good margins.

We're lucky at work in that we have the biggest transport composite panel builder in Oz just in the next street. Everyone here uses him. One motorhome builder gets 35 full body panel kits a month from them all CNC cutout and ready to stand on the floors and drop the widows in etc. He does a roaring trade.

We only buy the foam and layup our own panel in our molds but for home build construction what you're suggesting is ideal. Read that old thread.

 

[whatcharterboat]

This little Waeco 12 / 24volt compressor drawer fridge in the corner would have plenty of scope for different installations in a truck or camper. IIRC About 30 litres. The Danfoss compressor could be mounted remotely too and the whole unit would possibly fit under a passenger seat or between the seats even.

 

[whatcharterboat]

IMO There’s a couple of businesses in Brisbane that make truly world class gear.

Bullbars For Trucks is one.

And Holmwoods is another. They specialize in alloy and stainless tanks and fuel / milk / etc. tankers trailers. A couple of old friends work there and say they’re a great company to be with too. Note the locker behind the step treads in the middle tank.

 

[whatcharterboat]

Well I at least expected a couple of FGs at the official Fuso stand. Not so. There was of course this stunner out that’s been doing the international show circuit. I don’t believe it’s a fully functioning product but rather more of a mockup. Just a plastic cover over the engine and while I read that the roof was a auto tinting LCD screen, it really just looked like tinted glass. The interior was a knockout. Like a Lamborghini. Red leather and paddle shifts. Suicide doors too, which apparently are very easy to egress from in tight parking spaces.

The LED head lights were somethin' else.

Fuso also had a Hybrid on sale similar to the Isuzu ELF. I hope an FG 4x4 hybrid is in the wings.

 

[Mickldo]

Hi Mick, Yep . Plenty of tailgate lifters there too. Maybe not exactly race car types. That might be a specialized thing if it's a 2 level transporter.

It is isn't it?

Yeah, we've got to fit a column rail type tailgate lifter that can lift a couple of Pro Stock Drag Cars. One above the other.

The leading distributor (I won't mention names) won't return phone calls or emails. I guess they don't won't to sell us a $65K+ product. I am trying to find another supplier so we can do our business elsewhere.